Capes and capers

Yesterday the boys and I visited a new park. It was a beautiful inner-city oasis. Big shady trees, soft green grass and manicured garden beds. The playground was delightful, full of lovely equipment. Not a scrap of wear-and-tear or vandalism in sight.

We spent three hours at that park. Drinking in the spring sunshine and having a wonderful time. The birds sang and every now and then - much to the boys delight - a train rattled lazily past. It was a perfect morning .... that was, until the incident.

As much as the children are happy to entertain themselves, at age two and three there are still some parts of a park that require the assistance of an adult. Mostly its the swings, but yesterday Bargy had his eye on the see-saw. A bright yellow see-saw with wide, moulded seats and an enormous spring bedded into the ground. I could see the allure; it did look fun.

So nearing the end of our visit I hoisted Bargy onto one of the seats and made some attempts at bouncing him up and down by hand. But the spring was very big and stiff; it wasn't a particularly good effort at see-sawing. At that moment, I made the ill-fated decision to sit on the other end of the see-saw. I sat gingerly on the seat and bounced up and down, being careful to spring from the knees and not drop my weight onto the seat. Bargy laughed and smiled in the spring sunshine. He gurgled away having a whale of a time. Up, down; up, down; up, down. This was fun.

But then it happened. It was all over in a split second.

I was on the ground looking up into the brilliant sunshine and the blue, blue sky. The sky ... where I could see Bargy's still smiling face, perched way up high above me. Then in slow motion the see-saw groaned and fell on its side. Bargy and I lay awkwardly in the tanbark. And other mothers stared. Oh my giddy aunt - I'd broken the see-saw.

No-one was hurt, so after brushing ourselves off (and trying to locate my dignity) we laid the poor, expired see-saw to one side. Then we beat a hasty, guilty and humiliated retreat from the park. After reporting the mangled see-saw, the boys and I spent the afternoon safely ensconced at home. We played superheroes with beautiful new capes, a generous gift from Cindy at Bug and Pop.

Of course I sat on the sidelines. After flattening playground equipment, I didn't fancy my chances of leaping tall buildings in a bound.

Check out Cindy's lovely children's wares at her Etsy store or at the upcoming Mathilda's Market in Melbourne on 16 November.